HumpDay Coffee
by StarlightMelodies
Summary: A Wednesday morning conversation over coffee. More Clare/Eli bonding. Sequel to Hospital Room Movies.


_**Title: Hump-Day Coffee**_

_**Summary: A Wednesday morning conversation over coffee. More Clare/Eli bonding. Sequel to Hospital Room Movies. Set the morning after the elevator/hospital conversation. Recommended that you read Hospital Room Movies first. **_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Degrassi.**_

Wednesday morning brought many things, one of them being a very unhappy Clare. It wasn't that she didn't want her mother to be happy and she was really trying not to be selfish about the whole thing. Clare loved her mother, she just thought that the ex-Mrs. Edwards was rushing into things. She had been dating Glen for a few weeks, how was that premise for a marriage or even an engagement? Glen was a nice man and Jake was a charmer but God, she didn't want them as family.

She had really liked Jake too. Their relationship wasn't heavy with hesitation or lies, but light and carefree. At least it was until their parents got _engaged. _Then he broke up with her, at prom. It had hurt, and now they were going to be siblings. It possibly couldn't have gotten more awkward.

Clare could get over the fact that her mother was getting married again, she could even deal with the fact that her and Jake were going to have to live together. The thing that Clare couldn't get over was what had happened that morning.She didn't even want to think about it right now. She didn't have to, her mother had left and Clare was blissfully alone.

It was at that moment Clare heard a knock at the door. Looking at a clock high on the wall in her kitchen she noticed that it was a quarter after ten. Standing up she sighed as she fixed the slippers on her feet and walked towards the door. The girl pushed her flyaway hair out of her face before reaching forward and turning the knob. Pulling the door she revealed a boy clad in dark clothes.

"Hey," the boy said.

"Hey," the girl replied. Silence filled the space between them. It was slightly awkward and oddly comforting. He hadn't been in her house in at least a few months, but he still could remember where many things were. He noticed the pictures on the wall in the hallway behind her, and remember the little smudge on the corner of one of them.

The boy scratched the back of his neck uneasily. The house still oozed out the authority and sovereign he associated with Clare's parents, even if they weren't there. The girl just stared at him, watching him as he stood in her doorway. Both teenagers observed each other. It took a few moments before either one stopped. Clare broke eye contact looking down at her toes and wiggling them.

"Um, you should come in." Clare said, gesturing with her hand for Eli to enter. The boy wordlessly entered the house and glanced around fleetingly, never looking at one specific thing for very long.

"Coffee's in the kitchen." She said and started walking towards aforementioned room. Turning back she noticed he wasn't following her. "Well come on before it gets cold." Clare called over her shoulder, and Eli soon followed her.

The kitchen was still the same as he remembered, it made him smile a little. He took a seat at the round wooden table in the room. The aroma of coffee filled the small space. Unlike The Dot it was quiet, and it was nice, cozy. The coffee pot was sitting on a counter plugged into a socket in the wall.

Clare, dressed in her slippers and a haphazardly tied knee length robe, went over to the pot. She grabbed two mugs from a cabinet over head and set them down. The blue eyed girl took the pot in one hand and cautiously poured the steaming brown liquid into the cups. Letting them settle she grabbed the milk and half-and-half from the refrigerator and sugar packets as well as two spoons from a drawer.

"Two sugar packets and a dash of half-and-half right?" She questioned turning around to face Eli.

"You remembered?" He asked in slight surprise. She flashed a shy smile and hummed a yes in response.

"How could I forget?" Clare rhetorically asked. "You ordered the same thing every time. Straight coffee, never the _decaffeinated _kind," She said 'decaffeinated' the way a priest would say something was sinful. "With half-and-half- but only a dash. You always emphasized that. Then at the table you'd grab two packets, you never seemed to care which ones, and dumped them in."

"You know I remember you're order too." Eli said in response. He was surprised that she would remember something most would find trivial. "You would get regular coffee, at least most of the time others you'd get that decaf crap or flavored coffee. If it was flavored it was either French Vanilla or Hazelnut. You don't like half-and-half, you always go right for the two percent milk and one packet of Splenda."

She was surprised just as much as Eli had been. As she turned back to the awaiting coffee, she couldn't help but think how this _situation_ seemed like they were playing house. She was fixing him coffee as Eli sat there just waiting, like a husband reading a newspaper before he went to work. Was that a bad thing? Clare couldn't tell.

She finished fixing their drinks and carried the steaming mugs over to the table. She set her own cup on the table next to Eli and handed him the coffee cup. He looked at it and chuckled. Typical. She couldn't argue the irony though, she had given him a mug with _Rainbow Brite _on it.

"Didn't realize you were a _Rainbow Brite _girl. I always pinned you for more of the _Strawberry Shortcake_ type." Eli said.

"Ha ha, hilarious." Clare said taking a sip from her coffee. Eli followed suit.

"Ah, nothing better than a hump-day coffee." He said much to Clare's confusion. She knitted her eyebrows and pursed her lips a bit at the phrase, it sounded kind of dirty.

"What is 'hump-day'?" She asked. "Is it some kind of dirty slang or something?"

"Clare," He said. "You've never heard of hump-day?"

"No," She answered her eyebrows relaxing a bit and her curiosity rising. "Wait, are you basically telling me you're planning to sleep with someone tonight?" She said assuming the worst. The word _hump_ didn't normally mean anything wholesome.

"No!" He interjected. "Clare it means _Wednesday. _It's just a saying, hump-day is like climbing a proverbial hill to get through a tough week. After today we are on the easier half, Thursday, Friday, then the weekend."

"Oh, that sounds a lot better than what I expected." Clare said relieved taking another sip of her coffee.

The teens sat in silence for a while just drinking their respective coffees. It was comfortable. An early morning ritual almost like they had been doing it for months or even years. She had missed times like this with Eli. Clare had missed spending quiet days with someone who cared about her. They didn't feel obligated to fill the silence with words, they didn't feel obligated to do _anything_ except enjoy each other's mutual company.

While they sat Clare noticed the difference in their attire. Eli had on black cargo shorts and a black Batman t-shirt. Clare on the other hand, had thrown on a dressing gown over her night clothes in a haste. She hadn't expected her morning to go the way it had. Looking around the kitchen she noticed a picture her mother had taken with Glen and rolled her eyes. Eli noticed and arched a brow in confusion.

"What's the dramatic eye roll, princess?" He inquired.

"Huh?" She said. "Oh, my mother and I kind of had an argument this morning and I am a bit frustrated with her."

"Want to talk about it?" He offered. "I might be able to offer some perspective."

"Well, okay. " Clare said taking her cup in her hands and daintily lifting it to her lips. "When I came downstairs this morning, Jake and Glen were here. She wanted to have a family breakfast before they left. It really wasn't a problem, but I just feel awkward around them, or well Jake more accurately. That apparently didn't satisfy my mom because the she announces that she wants us all to go up to Glen's _cabin."_

"Okay so you're angry because you have to go up to their cabin?" He questioned.

"_No, _let me finish." She said. "She wants to leave Friday morning. I told her that I couldn't because of our plans with Adam. We both promised to go their everyday till he was out. You know what she told me?" Clare rhetorically asked. "She said 'Clare, you've been very selfish going to that hospital all day everyday. I know you care about your friend but do you really need to go everyday? It seems like you're not interested in the wedding at all.' You should have seen the room after that. My jaw was on the floor and it was completely silent."

"That was kind of bitchy." Eli said. "I can see how she is a little upset that you seem to be avoiding the house after she and Glen announced their engagement. It's not like anyone planned any of this though, right? You didn't plan on them wanting to get married, they didn't expect you and Jake to be dating, and no one planned Adam getting shot. It is all circumstance. I think maybe tonight you should have a talk with her. Lay everything out on the table and hash it out. If you fix things with your mother wouldn't everyone be a lot happier? At least hopefully you could come to some kind of agreement."

"That does seem like a good idea, I think I might try that. But I really don't want to go to that cabin at least not till I know Adam is back at home. She didn't say how long we could be there, what if I am stuck up there the rest of the summer?" Clare said with a hint of worry in her voice. Her hands balled into fists, clutching handfuls of the fabric draped over her lap.

"Well how far away is this cabin?" Eli questioned an idea popping into his head.

"An hour and a half, I think." She said confusion crossing her face.

"You're a big girl, why can't you stay home for a few days then have someone drive you up there, after Adam is released from the hospital?" He said. Both of the teens coffee was long forgotten on the table.

"Who would drive me?" She questioned.

"Well couldn't your father? I mean you could even stay with him for the few days. Hell I could even drive you if you wanted." He said, the last statement left hanging in the open air.

"See this is why I need you around. I am going to go insane if I don't have a bit of sense knocked into me every once in a while." She said smiling. "I'll bring this all up tonight. Hopefully we can be rational adults and not end up screaming at each other."

"Medication can really level you out. I feel like I have a much clearer and rational perception now. I'm glad I could help." He said.

"So you're getting all the help you need now?" She asked.

"Yes. _I_ want to get better. I don't want to have to feel paranoid or jealous. I don't want to have meltdowns. I just want to feel normal, or at least as normal as us misfits can be." Eli confessed meaning every word of it. He did want to function in normal society without a major problem.

"Well we all strive for normalcy, but being a misfit isn't so bad when you have people to share your misadventures with." Clare said.

"Guess you're right about that Clare. Now let's go to grab those Disney movies and watch them like obsessed five year old children." He said ready to head to the hospital to see Adam.

"Sure, just let me throw something on." She said getting up from the table. She grabbed the mugs and brought them to the sink dumping out any excess and leaving the mugs to wash later.

Clare headed up the stairs to her room, where she changed quickly throwing on some comfortable shorts, a flow-y shirt, and flip-flops. She grabbed her bag sitting next to her bed filled with the three _Toy Story _movies, her cell phone, house keys, and other various items. Throwing the bag on her shoulders Clare nearly flew back downstairs. Eli was waiting by the front door for her.

"Here I almost forgot them." Eli said handing her a stack of comics. "When you're finished I can give you some more."

"Great, at least these will give me something to do when I'm up in that cabin." She said taking the stack from his hands. Clare set them down on her coffee table.

"Alright, let's head out." Eli said opening the door and stepping out on to the porch. Clare followed suit and locked the front door behind her. The teens walked to the car in a comfortable silence. They smiled getting into the car, and set off to meet their friend. Both knew that the day could only get better, because what could make you feel bad on hump-day?

_**Author's Note: So the sequel to Hospital Room Movies. This popped into my head last night and practically wrote himself. I really like doing these little friendship pieces. I am thinking of doing at least another one, if not more, in the same universe. Then maybe I might do an Eclare romance set in the same universe as these one-shots (seeing as how the relationship will have built up again over these little ficlets.) Thanks for reading and thank you for reviewing. **_

_**Lyss **_


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